70% of European adults have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives, resulted from, either: 

– Accidents, natural disasters, biological factors (e.g. CoronaVirus) 

– Child abuse or neglect 

– Physical, emotional or sexual abuse 

– Grief and loss 

– Medical interventions 

– War and other forms of violence 

– Witnessing acts of violence 

– Cultural, intergenerational and historical trauma 

In the countries involved in this project, the rate of individuals with Post Traumatic Disorder (PTD), is 8.37% in Spain, 8.4% in Romania. 

Unfortunately, there are no available rates since 2014 in Turkey and Cyprus because attempts to reach estimates are still to be made, and the situation changed globally so much since that year. 

In Spain, after the pandemic started, 53% of the health staff showed signs of PTD. 

The percentage of professionals trained in mental health is proved to be low in the countries partners of the project, especially in this period, when mental health is the main key to adapt to the new reality: 9.6 mental health trained professional/ 100 000 citizens in Spain, 5.6 in Cyprus, 4.5 in Turkey and 7.8 in Romania, while the European average is 18 professionals/100 000 citizens. 

Therefore, through our project we aim to develop an innovative training package for health VET trainers to use as a basic tool to train health support staff to familiarize them with PTD and increase their skills and competences to recognise and treat individuals with traumatic disorders through proper strategies for de-escalating stressful interactions. 

Objectives: 

1. To design, test and publish an innovative training package for health VET trainers, which will be their tool to train health support staff to acquire sufficient knowledge and understanding about PTD and develop the skills and competences necessary to recognise, interact, and treat appropriately individuals with PTD 
2. To deliver training courses to directly train health support staff in a set of skills and, also, to deliver these courses to a target group of health VET trainers and health support staff, in order to amplify and perpetuate the ripple effect of those courses 
3. To help families/social groups of individuals with PTD connect with health support staff and develop mutual trust in coping with the process and emergency situations. 

OUTPUTS

– A curriculum box training in post-traumatic disorder through art therapy 

– A specific art Psychotherapy working groups’ methodology 

– A Colour therapist manual for PTD group treatment sessions. 

– A Virtual Reality environment will be created, with scenarios for treating PTD; 160 Health support staff and health VET trainers in the online Training courses, Virtual Reality scenarios, Psychotherapy working groups on how to treat post-traumatic disorder through colour therapy, and in C1& C2 training. Decision makers, health experts, specialists, professionals- as results of the dissemination activities.